The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1887-11-03

dead he had his father burned to
ashes, and then put the ashes into
four sacks, and tied them to four eagles
necis which flew away in opposite directions
And there are now domestic antipathies
which seem forever to have scattered all
parental memories to the four winds of
heaven. How far the eagles fly with the
sacred ashes The hour of shutdown makes to
that family impractical suggestion, Thomas
Carlyle, in his biography of Frederick the
Great, says the old king was told by the con.
lessor he must be at peace with his enemies II
he wanted to enter heaven, Then he said to
his wife, the Queen: "Wrte to your brother
ths confessor, said: Her majesty had better
write him immediately mo- said the
King, latter am dead; that will 10 sater.'
So he let the sun of his earthly existence go
Town upon his wrath.
Again: We ought not to allow the sun to set
before forgiveness takes place, because we
might not live to see day. And what
II we should he ushered into the presence OF
our Maker with grudge upon our souli The
majority of people depart this life in the
night. Between II o'clock p. IN. and o'clock
4 M there is something in the atmosphere
which relaxes the grip which the body has on
he soul, and most people enter the next
world through the shadows of this world.
Perhaps God may have arranged it in
srast the more glorious. have seen
mnshiny days in this world that must have
been almost like the radiance OF heaven. But
as most people leave the earth between sun
Town and sunrise, they quit this world at its
darkest and heaven, always bright, will be
the brighter for that contrast. Out OF black
ness into irradiation. Shall we then leap over
the roseate bank of sunset into the favorite
hunting ground OF disease and death, carry
iprr min wi wOnlH
want to confront his God, against whom We
have all done meaner things than ANYBODY
has ever done against us, carrying Old
grudgesa How can We expect his forgive
ness for the greater when we are
not willing to forgive. others the less!
crossing of the Alps because Carlemagne
had previously crossed them. And al ths
rugged path of forgiveness bears the bleeding
footsteps of him who conquered through
suffering, and we ought to be willing to fo..
low. On the night of our departure from
this life into the next, our one plea will have
to be for mercy, and it will have to be
offered in the presence of him who has
said: "If you forgive not men their tres
passes neither will your heavenly Father for
give your trespasses.n What sorry plight
If we stand there hating this one, and hating
that one, and wishing this one damage and
some one else a calamity, and we ourselves
needing forgiveness for ten thousand times ten
thousand obliquities OF heart and life When
our last hour comes, we want it to lind us all
right. Hardly anything affects me so much
in the unc overing of ancient fonpeii as the
account OF Tie soldier who after the city had
for many centuries been covered with the
ashes and scoria of Veslvius, was found
standing in his place on guard, hand on spear
and hemlet on head. Others fled at the awful
enlargement but the explorer, LOO years
oft tta hf,-lp ,ft hot hra Il,
right position. And it will be grand thing
if, when our last moment comes, we are
found in right position toward the world, as
well as in right pos ton toward God, on
guard and unaifiighted by the ashes from the
mountain oil death. | do not suppose that
am any more of a coward than most people,
but declare to you that l would not dare to
sleep to night if there were any being in all
the earth with whom | would not gladly
shake hands, lest during the night hours,
my soul dismissed to other realms, should,
because of my unforgiving spirit, be denied
divine forgiveness.
But" says some woman, ''there is a hor-
rid creature that has so injured me that rather
than make up with her | would die first"
Well, sister, you may take your choice
for one or the other it will be-your COM
plete pardon of her or Gods eternal Danish
ment of you. But says some man
'tbat fellow who cheated me out Of those
goods, or damaged my business credit, or
started the lie about me in the newspapers,
or by his perfidy broke up my domes-
tic happiness, forgive him l cannot-for-
give him | will not.n Well. brother, take
your choice. You will never be at peace
with God till you are at peace with man.
Feeling as you now do you would not get so
near the harbor of hea7en as to see the light
ship. Better leave that man with the God who
said: vengeance is mine, | will repay"
You may say: 81 will make him sweat for
that yet, will make him sguirm, mean to
pursue him to the DEATH" but you are dam
aging yourself more than you damage him
and YOU are making heaven for your own
soul an impossibility. If he will not be
reconciled to you, be reconciled to him. In
five or six hours it will be shutdown. The
dahlias will soon bloom against the western
sky. Somewhere between this and that take a
shovel and bury the old grudge at least six
feet deep. LET not the sun go down on your
wrath"
But" you say, 81 have more than can
bear: too much is put upon me, and | am not
to blame if l am somewhat revengeful and
unrelenting." Then think of the little child
at the moving of some goods from store.
The father was putting some rolls OF goods
on the child's arm, package after package,
and some one said: "1hat child is being over
loaded and so much ought not to be put upon
knows how much can carry" and God, our
Father, will not allow too much imposition
on his children. In the day of eternity 1t
will be found you had not one annoyance toe
many, not one aspersion too many, not one
outrage too many. Your heavenly Father
knows how much you can carry.
Again, we ought not to allow the passage
OF the sunset hour before the dismissal of all
our atronts, because we may associate the
sublimest act on of the soul with the sublim-
estspectacle in nature. 1t is a most delight
some thing to have our personal experiences
allied with certain objects. There is tree
or river bank where God first answered your
prayer You will never pass that place or
think of that place without thinking of the
glorious communion. There was some gate,
or some room, or some garden walk where
YOU were affiance1 with the companion
who has been your chief Joy in life.
| You never speak of that place but with a
| smile. Some of you have pleasant memories
| connected with the evening star, or the moon
| in its first quarter, or with the sunrise, be-
| cause you saw it just as you were arriving a,
harbor after tempestuous voyage. Forever
| and forever, o hearer, associate the sunset
with your magnanlmous, out and out, un
| limited remuneration of all hatredS and for
| gveIess Of all foes. / admit it is the most
difficult of all graces to practice, and at the
| start you may make complete failure, but
keep on i'll the attempt to practice it.
Shakespeare wrote ten plays before he
! reached "Hamletn and seventeen plays
before he reached Merchant OF Venice and
twenty-eight plays before he reach Mac
beth" And gradually you will come from
the easier graces to the most difficult. Be
side that, it is not mattor of personal deter
mination 50 much as the laying hold Of tbs
almighty arm of Col, who will help us to dc
anything we ought to do. Remember that
in all personal controversies the one
least to blame will have to take the
first step at pacification, IL it is ever
effective. The contest between Eschines
and Aristippus resounds through history, but
| Aristippus, who was least to blame, went tc
Eschines and said: "Shall we not agree tc
be friends before we make ourselves the
laughing stock of the whole country" And
4EschineS said: "Thou art a far better man
than |. for began the quarrel, butthou hast
been the first in healing the breach, and they
were always friends afterwards So let the
one of you that is least to blame take
the first step toward Cancellation. The one
most in the wrong will never take it. Oh
it makes one feel splendid to be able